u.s. congress votes to pull the economy from the brink of sliding back into recession by approving a bill that prevents the country going over the fiscal cliff. and a mass conversion to islam and the u.k.'s official religion facing extinction some experts question whether it's time for britain to become a secular state. and with a shaky cease fire with israel in place palestinian farmers in gaza have moved from land to roots hoping for a safer place to grow their projects near the front line. and

watching are they coming to live from moscow i'm marina joshie welcome to the program while the u.s. house of representatives has approved a cot a virtual bill designed to prevent the country from potentially sliding back into recession the fiscal cliff deal passed earlier by the senate will prevent nationwide tax hikes and spending cuts from coming into force at least for the time being the house republicans want to command the bill but stand aside if they didn't have enough support to make last minute changes to the motion the tug of war over the tax revolves around a democrat promoted increase in income tax for the rich for the first time in two decades but analysts lawrence freeman says that in the long run this bill will make life any easier for millions of struggling americans. that objectionable and anyway this whole operation i have been a manipulation. and

a farce to work over the minds of the american population be great there is no nothing in the book old world that any way shape or form will actually help the economy what's being right now a government twenty seven million people unemployed and missing for a year forty nine point seven million people living in poverty you have tens of millions of people going through bread lines get their food so this question of the big global economy and the wealth of the population is not good at all for nothing it's going to be results we're going aggressively to change the whole by means of system so that with legal separation of the banks now will we need some of their obama is delivering nothing good for the american people second or accomplish that much that you raise with them when taxes on wealthy people i don't mind that the states and scream trade or get tax plan is a bogey do you think president what kind of credit you can only make available to

them that's new infrastructure jobs and energy rebuilding new york new jersey the providing people with jobs so they can enable money with in a good family those are the foozle pless and hand in hand with the british monarchy the church of england have been a symbol of the u.k. for centuries and while the church still enjoys many unique political and financial privileges its current state is less than secure as our chief political finds out. one of the most religiously diverse nations in the wild with one official state religion to some it's a paradox i think any institution any faith institution like the church of england is going to have some potential threats on the horizon and those threats on the horizon are basically around its relevance to communities in general other faiths are significant and growing in their not only public.

the opera house of britain's parliament and it enjoys financial privileges courtesy of the u.k. taxpayer by the church's own admission the number of people coming through the doors of this and every other church in england has hauled over the past forty years the very same report even warns that in the longer term the established religion faces fading away to virtual envelopment twenty anglican churches just like this one being closed down for worship each year entrepreneurial property developers a snapping them up and converting them to luxury housing or even light clubs while the number of church goers in the u.k. continues to fall some one hundred thousand britons have converted to islam decade

three quarters of those white women as you know broaden my knowledge about islam and compared it with christianity i must tell you i found a more logical you know it just resonates with me i like what the prince of wales but he wants to be if ever he becomes king he wants to be the leader of faith you know of all faiths but i think it's a wonderful statement because certainly our society here in britain is very multicultural and very multi-faith so everybody should be included while other faiths enjoy popularity the church of england's recent rejection of women bishops and disapproval of gay marriage has reignited the age old debate on the separation of church and state people feel alienated if they're not part of that church and so few people are because only two percent go to church on a normal sunday so that's why we must i think make sure that the church

is disestablished and the twenty six bishops that votes in the house of lords the only country in the world to have a parliament where they have the right to do that should be extinguished britain now has one of the lowest. rates of church attendance in europe there is a rule urban split in terms of religious opinions there is and that will grow and that fusion may actually become wider as time goes on and so i guess what we have today is is the church effectively being relevant to certain parts of this country despite centuries of tradition some question what will be left of the church of england in fifty years time though the statistics are very clear very clear almost disappeared with something i think the twenty fifty figures are one hundred thousand people in the pews on an average sunday out of

a population of sixty million that's miniscule but the privileges and political influence afforded to it are far from trivial and that's what's fueling the calls of those who say that it's fairer to separate the church from the state party boyko r t london. ireland has taken on the six month presidency of the european council marking forty years of a c.e.o. membership prime minister and a canny s. pledge to bring the republic's vast experience of coping with financial difficulties to the table while focusing on the easy canonic recovery alice robert oulds earlier told my colleague carrie johnson may prove to be a tough task for the celtic tiger one of the key challenges facing many countries in europe is of course the economic difficulties and is of course rigidly sticking to the austerity drive which the european union wants which it mandating arlan to do it's effectively running its budget policies in many different areas amount of

money that it can be can spend to deal with the deficit but of course arlen's medicine that they're taking and partly suffering from but they're getting on with it isn't really wide for the rest of europe so if they're going to be dry before with the agenda in the european union for the next six months that's not the. economic problems let me ask you this i mean this coming year twenty thirty the e.u. has come up with something called the european year of citizens to be highlight the rights people have because they're in the e.u. what do you make of that one of the key words that people should have is a via to elect their own governments and for that to actually make a real difference but of course with the european union power has become too centralized amongst the institutions in brussels and that just takes away power from ordinary citizens so the european union can tell us why it's that we have but of course we don't actually have the violet to make a real difference to the elections because far too many decisions now are made at

the supranational level major decisions being made in brussels away from the citizens whether they be the citizens of britain or spain or greece for that matter ok but what you are going to be restored but were there any success stories in twenty twelve it must have been something when after all the countries predicted to have collapsed by now are still surviving. well course unemployment continues to go up that's for the states within the euro zone that very alarming and that their economic problems will not be resolved until of course it's recognized that the euro the single currency is the wrong carbon c for these countries really we need to have a back of powers away from brussels to all the different member states and of course britain should of course have its own referendum on our membership as well and have our own say but it needs to be recognised that the european union is of course failing economically so it still is still there it still exists but the

price of people are paying is of course no economic growth and of course massively high unemployment which is now reaching alarming proportions for many different eurozone states. and more stories are coming your way this hour including the silent killer that lies dormant for decades. it's a disease that i understand can kill you. but find out how some veterans of the nine hundred sixty sexual revolution in california deal with the threat of hepatitis c. and why health officials they are raising alarm bells over it. plus rich pickings from rooftop farms people in gaza hit the tiles to raise crops on top of their houses says israel keeps security tight around the strip all that after a short break the hallway.

would be soon which will brighten if you move the sun from phones to pressure. stunts on t.v. . she could leverage or lead to mccurry was able to build a new age most sophisticated robot which will unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything change mission to teach music creation and why it should care about humans and that this is why you should care only.

welcome back you're watching r.t. live from moscow with israel easing restrictions to allow building materials into gaza the nation's blockade of the strip still affects those who live there one who are bearing the brunt of the restriction are farmers mammie of whom had to leave their land of the buffer zones to grow food on rooftops but as policy reports with a recent assault in gaza still fresh in the memory some fear they may not see their next harvest there's not a lot of greenery in gaza at least not in the places you'd expect to find it like abu have thumbs farm which since the israel gaza war four years ago has laid a barren and deserted and diminished look to yet again i had a very nice plantation and lots of visitors came to see it all sue students from the farming school used to come and study at my place and had that go in there but

what kids from israel raining down on one of the most densely populated spots on earth meant to have needed to find another place where he could grow his crops and so he looked towards his own home and the plates that. i needed an old senate seat so i made this plantation on the roof and started working again. creates a lot of things yes time and energy i can make fifty thousand suppling from these simonson meters on the roof and ship. it's an idea that's taken root in farms along the gaza israel border where much of the agriculture has been repeatedly destroyed by the israeli army many farmers are unable to access the land because of the buffer zone that's one of at least a third of gaza's farmland your. today there is no space to have a farm in gaza it is very crowded everybody is building new houses where i stand now used to be

a plantation for oranges and lemons and if you look at it now you see buildings. fall out of five people in gaza are dependent on food aid homegrown food projects like rooftop gardens can help combat mom christian and severe poverty by allowing farmers to sell their produce marry any woman can do it i work with my husband and my daughters till midnight is that half a lot of farming should be on the ground but we heard that we can plant in volcanic rock on our roofs so i tried it. farmers grow wheat and a variety of fruits and nuts on these rooftops they also raise rabbits and chickens showing how the little ingenuity can go a long way ask anyone in israel or gaza whether they think the situation is stable and they'll tell you it's only a matter of time before the next israel gaza showdown they might be a ceasefire in place between the two sides but no one believes it will hold least of all the gaza farm is always the first in the line of fire. on the israel gaza

border. let's now take a look at some of the stories from around the world in syria fresh fighting is being reported between ousted loyalists and rebels in the second city of aleppo and in the capital a level where the national airport is under a militancy while insurgent positions in the suburbs of damascus are reportedly being shelled this comes after anti-government activists claim dozens of bodies bearing signs of torture were discovered in the capital it's not clear who is responsible for the alleged atrocity the violence continues despite a stark warning from the top international peace envoy to syria says the country faces a choice of political process or health. authorities in the ivory coast have the clay or three days of mourning after a stampede during new year's celebrations claiming the lives of over sixty people the tragedy occurred when a large crowd was leaving a city stadium after a fireworks show a similar incident happened in angola during new year's festivities leaving tan dad

and one hundred twenty injured. at least four people have been killed and dozens wounded after an explosion in a crowded area of pakistan southern city of karachi police say the bomb was planted on a motorbike and detonated when a political rally of the city's dominant party passed by no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the liberal party but police suspected militants might have targeted the rally prior to upcoming general elections. but as well as leader which of us was conscious following a cancer operation in cuba that's according to the country's vice president nicolas maduro however stressed the president's condition remains delicate it was earlier reported that chavis was suffering complications caused by a respiratory infection under the constitution the socialist president is due to be sworn in for a third term in january the tail. dabbed the silent killer health

officials in the us are calling for all baby boomers to be checked for hepatitis c. and disease that's becoming increasingly prevalent for the age group as r.t. is my the cogito reports decades after the summer of love many in california fear they'll have to pay for their head in a stick lifestyle. i. california the sunshine state ones the center of the hippie revolution a melting pot of music rock sound sexual freedom we did drugs that we're doing think about it there is no process because everybody was doing their deen made chill is a baby boomer born during the pos world war two years nineteen forty six and nine hundred sixty five his generation now is paying for that lifestyle a life of things drugs and rock'n'roll all fueled by flower power and the summer of

love they say few remember the sixty's you were intrigued there the baby boomers out of the sexual revolution may have lost some of their memories and they had the mists of time but there is one legacy of their past which is anything but harmless the centers for disease control has already named him patatas c s n and recognized health crisis according to their grannies ation current he won in thirty baby boomers are infectious with the virus the silent killer it can lie dormant for decades that's what happened to dean mitchell's friend who died just two months after being diagnosed with the disease they're paying for the car consequences because there are now so that. they have to get medication. it's a disease that i understand can kill you and worst of all it's not just baby boomers who are interested many could have a knowing if you contract to the virus through blood transfusions the screening was

only improved during the aids crisis in the ninety's californian's they area has been been hardest hit with more people dying here than anywhere else in the country and is also a very costly problem for the bankrupt states costing billions of dollars last year . where. they didn't tell us who or. when. it very. sinister. since. it. is. more widespread than h i.v. happy tide is seen kills around twelve thousand people in the us after a year and with the baby boomers in the highest risk group the center for disease control has called for mass screening they say they could identify almost

a million people now living with the disease and saves may need more lives but the question remains if the present generation will listen to the question r.t. reporting from las angeles california. and on our website following the brutal gang rape the delhi to the core hundreds of indian women apply for firearm licenses and join self-defense classes. plus a report reveals a number of japanese nuclear plants are ill equipped to deal with fires threatening to their reactivation of the country's nuclear stations by years log on to our view dot com to find out more. space has fascinated generations as a scientific mystery but have you ever considered going into orbit for your next holiday well it appears man if people have an earlier are to talk to eric anderson

a space entrepreneur about the part that private orbital travel has played in space exploration well the full interview is on air at six forty five pm g.m.t. but here is a quick preview. based tourism honestly is not a great word for what these people do when they participate as private citizens going to the space station every single one of them who's flown with space adventures to the space station has had an in-depth scientific program whether it was material science or biological experiments or whatever it was they have participated they have paid their own way of course they have used themselves as part of the scientific community that many of them have gone to space with less than perfect health and have been great examples of how for example laser surgery on your eyes is affected by space flight they all want to participate in this they are participating and the fact of the matter is quite honestly when private citizens go to the space station

a lot more people hear about the space station than otherwise it's just one of those things that they captures the public's attention part of nasa is mission is to encourage to the maximum extent possible the commercial use of space and in fact showing that there is a market showing that there are people willing to do this and showing that you don't have to be a career military fighter pilot the right stuff kind of person that plays a huge role and i think that's exactly the sort of thing that ends up helping the space agencies of the world as well. russian politics in return for a lot of input and fresh anti-government protests in two thousand and twelve although in numbers smaller than the year before our political analyst watch developments in the heart of the rallies and he told my colleagues kevin i want to end at least now we are earlier how he sees the protests mood in russia panning outs. i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any

new ideas new organization new faces and if pussy riot is that we are of the opposition that's pretty dreadful situation for the russian people and political development in general here and there's there was political change in this country in a positive change. the opposition as we head into the it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok who were communists there and they were these are people they're ok and it's your right to demonstrate i actually liked the idea but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like but a mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were a few protests which i was out as well where it did seem like that was the method if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see people coming out and take the train lost a lot of its novelty effect right now ok because political change takes years in

the years in years that have to be local this is what happens in critical changes with countries that were what they were carrying at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very strongly there's some people that want to really fast and they don't want to do it through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all led up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of when i'm down now i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest in but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things that we do i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work they want to go out and wave a flag and say give out a slogan we don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what they need to do. well peter all of al has been dissecting russian and

global politics in his cross talk serious route the past twelve months and r.t. dot com has plenty of additions of the show for you to watch on demand coming your way relive the two thousand and twelve and of the world without especially for the apocalypse now in just a couple of minutes stay with us. in this remote siberians in which people still sing the songs which russians sang in the media ages and they cherish the nation practiced by the will set up church before the seventeenth century the old believers he resigned the area are conservative community. in the shadow of a nation here yet again i feel. i now am i first met during the five.

people here are happy to show their way of life to tourists and to show them how to dance in the local star. yet. seventeen year old nadia is from the same village she now studies in the city and dances at a club. she puts on her costume and the traditional amber necklace only when she comes to visit her grandmother. ok i did ask untampered and say yes because i want to keep up to date with this morning world but still i would like to have camp my invention ground how my ancestors lawyer very attachment to the church brought not just an sistas to this remote glen a stiff legged. and call more than two hundred fifty years ago they were exiled in

persecuted for not agreeing to the orthodox who forms introduced in russia in the sixteen hundreds deal believers still baal and cross themselves with two fingers not with three as they do in modern orthodox churches in russia and never knew when praying was more and more young people leaving for big cities this year is the all believers culture could be imperiled. plans to continue her studies abroad to grandmother says wherever she goes as long as the jews are fresh in her memory so is the culture. it's a job but it's also a religious vocation that's pushing her to constantly find new ways of developing her business. today she visited this cave in the denver area. it's a more than three kilometer deep maze the spot is for sale and robin is thinking

about buying it for the construction of more underground shelters if somebody was to light a fire sometime in here what about the ventilation with the smoke or something like that you probably would want yourself back in a small room with a fire or anything like that but in something like this we're close to an entrance there's a lot of you're going to probably be all right ok. it's a good survival but it's like oh i do a cave like this we get easily howell's a thousand or so people in the cell it would be a great project a great resource to have a good place for robin it's the perfect place but her family seems a little less enthusiastic would you like to live in a cave like this. if it was like mandatory i'm going. to eat. now. but according to robin the girls will surely not have the choice because according to her the end of the world science is already well and truly visible

starting with the crumbling of christian values in our modern societies if you go to one bookstore or one movie store for instance how many of those books and how many of those movies do you think that jesus christ himself could watch and that will tell you how many things are going to get burned those things need to be cleansed out of the world for him to be a part of it again so he's going to come back there's going to be a cleansing process the millennium for so that tells you how bad the world could possibly be. living quarters for a large family in a bunker being sold up to two million euros. to meet the demand real estate projects like these are sprouting up all over the united states. just a few months ago larry hall was building skyscrapers but today in the middle of the kansas plains in a spot he means to keep secret this businessman has decided to devote his time.